Today’s announcement follows Icahn’s disclosures last week that he had amassed $3.6 billion worth of the stock since last August as he lobbied the company to dramatically boost its buyback program. Assuming today’s amounts follow directly on the prior purchases, that would amount to $4.1 billion in holdings.

Icahn’s $1 billion in purchases in the last two weeks were obviously at levels high above the current price, in the range of $540 to $560. The stock is currently off $42.01, or almost 8%, at $508.49.

Multiple analysts last night opined that Apple’s results may boost support among investor’s for Icahn’s buyback push. Icahn last week posted publicly his latest letter to Apple’s shareholders urging their support, which is quoted in the post I mentioned above.

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There are 18 comments

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:26 A.M.

freddysrevng wrote:

Question: What if Carl Icahn, in an attempt to manipulate the price of Apple, "Tweeted" that he just bought more Apple stock and nobody cared?

Oh, nevermind, that just happened...

Remember the "good old days" when Carl's tweets mattered and Apple came out with new innovative products?

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:31 A.M.

Peter wrote:

At least Carl puts his money where his mouth is. They F Jokers on the Apple Board and Cook and his Staff wouldn't buy 1 F share with their own money. They will just give themselves some more stock options priced at 500 and move on. They are the very reason Apple stock SUX, but yet they continue to Steal from Shareholders with their stock options, while every Shareholder gets Slaughtered and loses Money! Those F CHEAP A Holes on the Apple Board, Cook, and his Team Haven't spent a F penny of their own on Apple stock. They would rather just Steal it like they have always done.

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:34 A.M.

Prashant wrote:

I am surprised people were bidding up AAPL this quarter as a play on growth. There is no more growth for AAPL in terms of units, and with their cash hoard they can hope to emulate what INTL and IBM have done in the past few years - retire stock quarter after quarter to keep pushing up the EPS numbers.

Eventually people need to move on (perhaps they already have?) from AAPL, and it will remain a great company producing lots of cash but not much growth, if any. People wishing for $400 or $600 are mistaken, this is going to be rangebound, and deservedly so. If they can unlock any value in that cash hoard, I'd be very happy. I just view at my AAPL holdings as a long term bond (backed by a lot of cash and assets), but the volatility is quite unnecessary.

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:40 A.M.

A Pull wrote:

Icahn just grabbed another million shares. Given that only 900 million remain available for the rest of us I would expect to see an immediate positive impact on the share price

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:41 A.M.

Hu Flung Dung wrote:

In response to comment by Peter: At least, if they gave themselves stock options, I'd feel better, because for them to make money, the stock would need to trade above the price of the options. Instead, what they do is give themselves what's known as RSUs, which stands for restricted stock units. It's a euphemism for actual shares - not options, nothing to exercise, just shares that can be sold for whatever the stock is trading at. So they really don't give a hoot about the price of the stock, because they can simply give themselves more RSUs.

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:49 A.M.

D-Mart wrote:

The man is putting his money where his mouth is, that's for sure. Also, recall that Warren Buffett himself told Steve Jobs, with no ambiguity, that AAPL should be buying back their shares at a much higher rate that they were. This is not Icahn's idea, it was originally Buffett's. And it's correct.

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:52 A.M.

Odex wrote:

Hearken ye ... The great parasite has spoken!

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:55 A.M.

Peter wrote:

D Mart. Dead on. Cook is a DOPE. He should have canceled the Dividend ( nothing but a Waste of money) and doubled down on the Buyback. he should be FIRED for his Stupidity along with Oppenheimer the Jr. Accountant, and they should be given no more options.

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:58 A.M.

freddysreng wrote:

Didn't Apple just give Tim $340 million in compensation last year? He can AFFORD to say Apple cares about making the best not the most.....he could care less about the retail investor - and that is why he should be gone. This little iTard experiment is failing and take those metrosexual commercials with you.....

JANUARY 28, 2014 11:59 A.M.

B Allen wrote:

Whatever happened to proper, fourth-grade-level punctuation? This type of error is now rampant on the web and only seems to be getting worse.
"Apple’s results may boost support among investor’s for Icahn’s buyback push."

JANUARY 28, 2014 1:39 P.M.

Rapunzel wrote:

Jeez did you guys see the CNBC video this morning of Carl's pal, Donald Drapkin another activist investor and moral supporter of Mister Icahn? Slither slither slither... Talk about a snakey face. Slither slither slither. charming fellow. He said Apple should give back its $159 billion. He also said Apple is not innovative without Steve Jobs. He also said Apple is losing market share. In other words Donald supports Carl and in effect it is the gradual and slow destruction of Apple.

Ask. Who drove the price of Apple down 8% last night in After Hours Trading?

Reminder. Google's Dr. Eric Schmidt was once asked: if he was not head of Google, what company would he want to lead. Schmidt said, "Apple, because of the cash." Because of the cash.

You take Apple's cash away. You've effectively enable Google, Amazon etcetera to succeed. You destroy Apple and their employees go to Google and Amazon... Screw that noise. Ha.

Have a nice day. Slither slither slither...

JANUARY 28, 2014 2:31 P.M.

Ron wrote:

Turn out the Lights, the Party is over at Apple

JANUARY 28, 2014 2:43 P.M.

@ Ron wrote:

Are you some kind of a tool or agent of the dweeb patriarchy? The reason no one knows what's going on at Apple is because they are the Party Party!

JANUARY 28, 2014 2:53 P.M.

•••*6*6*6*••• wrote:

Re Carl. The jury is not out yet. Need more evidence.

You're crazy to not be loading up at these $507 prices.
These prices will never be revisited again!
$500 is a new historic support level!

THE DIVINE ONE.

JANUARY 28, 2014 4:19 P.M.

orion wrote:

I again applaud Icahn for another gutsy move to put money where his mouth is. Be careful Icahn, you may be throwing good money after bad if t3 (tiny timid tim) and his puppet directors continue to have their way at Apple.

T3 stroke again by opening his mouth yesterday. AAPL was down 3-4% after earnings release and then tanked another 4% by the time t3 finished yapping his usual nonsense. T3 came across unprepared, tired, whiny, confused, and dumbfounded in his muddy and convoluted answers to analysts some of whom were clearly exasperated by his double talk and finger pointing. It's everybody else's fault, but him and his crackhead boys. No wonder investors were heading for the exit during and after the conference call.

I sounded red alert on poor iPhone sales and lousy guidance weeks before some analysts started to voice similar concerns. I hope some investors took my advice to exit on good days before earnings. Today is painful, but it's going to get worse before it gets better.

My sources have indicated you won't see any new products (iwatch, itv, mobile payment, whatever else) until next year due to technical snafus. This is the reason why t3 was more opaque than usual when asked about them in the conference. You'll see larger screen iphones, but not until late fall or early winter. There's nothing between now and then to stop iphone sales from precipitous decline. Expect an earnings miss and a terrible guidance in April and more finger pointing from t3.

JANUARY 28, 2014 5:17 P.M.

Mary and her little Lamb. wrote:

@ Orion

You're a humongous bore. What else is new?
Look. You play it before any news or announcements. Then in after the drop. The whisper is welcome to the five oh club or the five oh oh party. Oh oh oh look see! And re the products. Who else are you expecting to produce whatever categorically? Hmm. You did see Samsung's super POS gear watch. No. Do you see any other contenders? So please. STFU. It always gets like this before Apple does it. Does what? Deliver. So please F O!

JANUARY 30, 2014 11:11 P.M.

give_me_a_break wrote:

Is there any law that says Icahn must tell the truth in his tweets ? I just bought 500 million of apple stock to, by the way

FEBRUARY 1, 2014 9:37 P.M.

joe wrote:

New Stock ALert: $IDO ,Security, Inc., is going to be big , stay tuned with it.

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Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.